Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan on Saturday called for Kurds to hold a historic congress to end a decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish authorities that has claimed tens of thousands of lives.

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations says Russia's vetoes against holding Syria's government accountable are “extremely disruptive” to the U.N. Security Council's ability to restore peace in the conflict.

The number of applicants for asylum to EU countries increased last year to 626,000, a surge of 44 percent fueled by refugees from the civil war in Syria, the European Union's statistics agency said Friday.